[cakewalkbaby]

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/...611020330/1006
times like this I'd almost believe in a higher power.

[InSummary]

OHHH JOY!!!!!1

Hovind faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.

i just hope this worthless fucker doesnt get off easy on sentencing because of his position as a religious spokesman.

[childrenofbodom]

seriously guys, its tax. screw tax. i hate tax more than i hate god, kent, and root canals put together..

[Mens Rea]

somewhere on earth a dog just gave birth to non-dog








and kent hovind's wife shit her pants

[bRaT]

i support the persecution of fundies ;)

[Revok]

I support the self-imposed downfalls of career imbeciles.

[ThEdUdE25]

Party time guys!

[The Pink Panthe]

During this trial, it has been clearly established that certain individuals and organizations are exempt from paying taxes, as Dr. Hovind believes. It has also been established that the charges brought against him are based solely on the opinions of the IRS agents. In addition it was established that these IRS agents never notified Dr. Hovind that the IRS found him in neglect due to their opinions that he was not tax-exempt, even though they have repeatedly testified that they do understand that Dr. Hovind sincerely believes that he and his ministry do fall within the tax-exempt guidelines allowable by the IRS. In fact, one of the agents testified that he was not aware of any civil examination that had been performed during the time of the indictment, and the defense finally asked that charges #1-12 be dropped.

In regards to the multiple charges against the Hovinds over funds being withdrawn in such amounts as “to evade reports being sent to the IRS”, it is important to note that the branch manager of the bank testified that she never felt it was necessary to submit a Suspicious Transaction Report for any of these transactions! In light of this and also since it is not illegal to obtain cash from a bank under the $10,000 mark or to be paid in cash, and since the defense showed reasonable cause for the Hovinds to need to withdraw this money for purchasing property and preparing for payroll, it was requested that charges #13-57 also be dropped.

In regards to the “unfriendly” visit by Dr. Hovind to the IRS office, the agent testified that there actually may have been shaking of hands when greeting each other and when saying good-bye, but there was no pushing, shoving, or yelling…just that Dr. Hovind quoted something from the Bible. That was construed by the agent as a veiled threat. However, the defense clearly showed that no “corruption to impede” justice occurred. The defense requested that charge #58 be dropped as well.

Unfortunately, when the defense attorneys attempted to point out to the jury and judge these all-important facts, multiple gag-orders were imposed on them, even though the judge stated at one point (when the jury was adjourned) that these attorneys were trained and competent. And, during the cross-examinations, both IRS agents needed to have their memories refreshed again and again by the defense, as they responded “I don’t know”, or “I can’t remember”, or “I don’t recall” to many of the questions presented to them. Also, the IRS agents failed again and again to directly answer many of the defense attorneys questions, such that the attorney had to repeat these questions beginning with the words, “You did not answer my question.” In regards to Dr. Hovind questioning the authority of one of the IRS agents to carry out the search warrant, the agent admitted that he did not show Dr. Hovind his credentials at the time he was conducting the search warrant. The other IRS agent who was present during the search, however, expressed concern that Dr. Hovind had “better work-out equipment” than he had (which, by the way, had been donated to Dr. Hovind.)


(From that same source)

[InSummary]

A Florida attorney testified Friday that Pensacola evangelist Kent Hovind disputed the government's right to tax him and likened his ministry's powers to that of a foreign embassy.

"He tried to stress to me that he was like the pope and this was like the Vatican," Seminole attorney David Charles Gibbs testified at Hovind's trial before U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers.

Hovind faces 58 federal charges, including failing to pay $473,818 in employee-related taxes and making threats against investigators. Hovind, a creationist who owns Dinosaur Adventure Land on North Palafox Street in Pensacola, is the founder of Christian Science Ministries.

Gibbs, an attorney with the Gibbs Law Firm in a suburb of St. Petersburg, also is affiliated with the Christian Law Association, a nonprofit organization founded by his father that offers free legal help to churches nationwide.

Gibbs has done work for Marcus Pointe Baptist Church and was a guest speaker at the church on Oct. 17, 2004, a day he said he remembers well because it was his daughter's 10th birthday.

After church, Gibbs and his daughter, along with other church members, were invited to Hovind's home for pizza and soda.

Gibbs testified he and Hovind spent several hours together watching their daughters play in the Dinosaur Adventure Land park owned by Hovind.

Gibbs said Hovind tried to persuade him he had no obligation to pay employee income taxes and explained with "a great deal of bravado" how he had "beat the tax system."

Gibbs said Hovind also told him he preferred to deal in cash and that when you are "dealing with cash there is not way to trace it, so it wasn't taxable."

Hovind and his wife, Jo, a co-defendant in the trial, also are charged with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements by making frequent withdrawals just below the $10,000 threshold for reporting cash transactions to the IRS.

Testimony of Special IRS Agent Scott Schneider took up the remainder of the day and is expected to resume Monday.

Schneider said his investigation revealed that Hovind "hadn't filed tax returns ever, to my knowledge."

The government contends that Hovind paid his employees in cash and labeled them missionaries to avoid paying payroll and FICA taxes. Most of Schneider's testimony was centered on documents seized during a 2004 raid of Hovind's property that indicated he ran his ministry like a business.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Michelle Heldmyer presented evidence that showed Hovind and his wife kept meticulous payroll records and required workers to punch a time clock like many business employees.

Evidence presented included employee applications, vacation schedules and memos chiding staff for showing up late to work.

In one memo, Jo Hovind informed her daughter, who works at the park, that her pay would be docked $10 for talking too long on the telephone when she should have been working.

Two people who worked for a Pensacola evangelist testified Wednesday in federal court that they didn't consider where they worked to be a church.

Evangelist Kent "Dr. Dino" Hovind is accused of failing to pay $473,818 in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes for employees of his Creation Science Ministry between March 31, 2001, and Jan. 31, 2004.

Hovind has claimed he didn't have to pay the taxes because his employees were "volunteers," "missionaries" or "ministers" and his business was a ministry.

His wife, Jo Hovind, also is on trial, accused of contributing to the fraud by making 45 bank transactions in a little more than a year in an effort to make the money untraceable.

Hovind owns Dinosaur Adventure Land on North Palafox Street, a creationist theme park dedicated to debunking evolution.

The trial is being heard by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers and is expected to take at least two weeks to complete.

Alan Richey is Kent Hovind's defense attorney, and Michelle Heldmyer is the prosecutor. They used government documents, letters and recorded phone conversations on Wednesday to question four witnesses.

Brian Popp, Hovind's employee for at least eight years, testified that he preferred to be paid in cash and that Hovind said that was the preference of the other employees.

"He said if it was up to him, he'd prefer to pay us all with checks," Popp said.

Popp said Hovind told him about the bank's requirement to report transactions over $10,000 and said it was "not safe to carry large sums of cash."

He also testified employees had a certain "paranoia" about Hovind's run-ins with the IRS, although workers were under the impression Hovind was "on the offensive rather than the defensive."

Popp testified that Hovind warned employees not to accept mail addressed to "KENT HOVIND." He said Hovind told the workers the government created a corporation in his "all-caps name." Hovind said if he accepted the mail, he would be accepting the responsibilities associated with that corporation, Popp testified.

Heldmyer asked Popp to read from ministry memos that referred to the workers as "employees" and included rules about timeliness, payroll, vacation days and salaries.

Richey pointed out the ministerial aspects of the memo, including references to Scripture and "helping to promote Christ."

Popp said the memos didn't always paint a clear picture of the inner workings of the ministry.

"There was sometimes a difference between memos and how we'd actually operate," he said.

Although Popp considered himself a minister at the time of his employment, he said Hovind's ministry isn't a church.

"It wasn't what I had become accustomed to be a church," he said.

Diane P. Cooksey, who was a sales representative for the ministry from January 2003 to June 2005, testified she was expected to pay her own taxes.

"He explained what his belief was, right up front in the interview, that I would pay my own taxes," she testified.

She received her hourly wage of $10 in a weekly paycheck, she punched a time clock, had 10 paid vacation days and considered herself an employee, not a missionary as a few others called themselves, she said.

Cooksey testified she never received a W-2 or 1099 tax form for the money she made.

"I didn't see it as a church, personally," she said, adding that on occasion, materials were given for free to missionaries and prisons.

After the Dinosaur Adventure Land was raided on April 2004, Kent Hovind required his employees to sign nondisclosure agreements if they wanted to keep their jobs, she said.

"I was uncomfortable signing it, I guess, because of not having a full understanding," Cooksey said.

M.C. Powe, an IRS officer who investigates people who have unpaid tax returns or unpaid tax liabilities, testified she first attempted to collect taxes from the Hovinds in 1996.

Kent Hovind was not home at the time, so she gave his wife a summons and taxpayer rights brochure.

Powe said she then received a letter from Hovind that stated: "... this summons indicates that you assume I am a 'taxpayer' per the IRS code."

Hovind denied in the letter that he was a tax protester, saying instead he was a steward over the property of the Lord, she testified.

Powe said Hovind never showed up at the appointed time and she returned to the home. When she learned Kent Hovind wasn't home again, she informed Jo Hovind that their vehicles would be seized.

"Because he traveled around a lot, I thought he would move his assets beyond our reach," she said.

Hovind tried several bullying tactics against her, Powe testified. A recording that Hovind made of a phone conversation was then played. In the phone conversation, Hovind tried to make an appointment with Powe by 10 a.m. that day. When Powe said she couldn't meet him because she had a staff meeting, Hovind threatened to sue her, which he did.

"Dr. Hovind sued me three times, maybe more," Powe testified. "It just seemed to be something he did often."

She testified that the cases were dismissed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Beard, who handled Hovind's bankruptcy, filed after his vehicles were seized by the IRS, testified that Hovind opted for the Chapter 13 "wage-earner plan," available only to those who have a regular source of income.

In his bankruptcy forms, Hovind wrote that he had no form of income, that he rejected his Social Security number and that his employer was God, Beard testified.

"That gives you a warning sign," Beard said.

...

[InSummary]

this dude made it clear to those around him that he thought he had found a way to "beat the tax system."



hovind is a fraud and a crook and i could not be more pleased that his ways have finally caught up to him.